Estes Park News

Estes Park R-3 school district welcomes new high school principal

The school board welcomed the new high school principal, Chuck Scott, at Monday night's school board meeting at the town hall.

School superintendent Patrick Hickey told the Trail-Gazette earlier this month he made the recommendation to the board to hire Scott, an Estes Park resident with 14 years of secondary school principal experience. Scott is already a Park R-3 employee, Hickey said, so he can "hit the ground running."

The ground Scott has been covering most recently is as a bus driver for the district. Hickey said that perspective will provide Scott with some unique understandings of the students and will be positive for the district.

Hickey said Scott's daughter goes to school here. Scott had applied for a position as principal of the elementary school, and did well, but did not have enough experience. Then, Scott applied for the secondary school principal position, and did well.

With Scott's years of experience as a secondary school principal, he'll be able to provide mentoring for assistant principal Ruby Bode, "he knows us, he lives here and he loves going to our school activities," Hickey said.

Scott was among 25 applicants, 19 of whom completed the application process, for the job. Seven applicants were to be interviewed, but one accepted another position, so the interview committee of 10 people — a parent, student, administration and team leaders from the teachers' group interviewed six candidates.

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"It was my decision and a committee recommendation," Hickey said. "I recommended two applicants. The decision was unanimous. The committee believed in (both candidates). But the decision is left to the superintendent."

There are a lot of positives to the decision, Hickey said. Scott has been a principal of a school that did block scheduling, he said, so there will be "zero second-guessing on the decision process."

There are few other open positions for the fall semester. There were two positions open for advanced mathematics and advanced placement physics, and Hickey said the district is working on filling them.

For summer positions, two of the district's regular employees have taken part-time positions, doing work such as mowing. Janet Bielmaier and Kay Hays can be found on the campus grounds this summer, attending to the upkeep.

"It feels like everyone's kind of pulling together," Hickey said. "It tends to speak to what kind of community we have, when they say, 'I like this place. I'll mow the grass.'"

Hickey said an upcoming "big deal, in my opinion," is the election of two board of education members this fall. He encourages citizens to apply, and said they will have opportunities to vote on several important issues that will affect both the community and the district.

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